


All We Have Is Now

by amyfortuna



Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: First Kiss, M/M, Post-Battle of Five Armies, The Silmarillion References
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-16
Updated: 2016-10-16
Packaged: 2018-08-22 18:02:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8295007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amyfortuna/pseuds/amyfortuna
Summary: Thranduil and Bard meet again, one year after the Battle of Five Armies.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [RainbowUnderpants](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RainbowUnderpants/gifts).



"You look well in your crown," Thranduil said, almost as soon as the official greetings were finished and they stood alone in Bard's tent on the shores of the Long Lake, looking out the door toward the water. A year had passed since the death of the Dragon, and the rebuilding of Dale was nearly complete. Some of Bard's people, preferring the life they had always known on the lake, were now working on a new, larger, Lake-town. Both Bard and Thranduil had come to provide assistance. Even now, many Elves were lightly springing up to the roofs of various houses to assist the Men working there. 

Bard gave Thranduil an enigmatic look. It was so different from how he had been a year ago, all his emotions written on his face plain to see, that Thranduil nearly stepped back, wondering who he'd come to meet. But Bard's words, when he spoke them, were in the same voice that he remembered. "You do not need me to tell you that you always look well." 

"It is in my nature," Thranduil said, "not to change. Not so that you would perceive it visibly, in any case." 

"And mine to change, you imply," Bard said, turning his face away to stare out into the distance at the ruins of the old town, further down the shore. He coloured slightly. "Do you like the changes that you see?"

Thranduil stepped closer, tilting his head a little. He slid a finger in under Bard's bearded chin and raised his face, turning him back toward Thranduil again.

Bard looked only a little different - the cut of his hair more neatly maintained, the clothes he wore a little finer - but he held himself entirely differently. He stood up straight and tall rather than with slightly hunched shoulders. He had the look of a man who had more recently wielded a sword than a bargepole. His eyes had always been dark and stormy, and now there was a light of happiness in them, buried far back though it was. He was a man who had seen hardship and destruction, had faced it head-on, and come through, victorious, to new and brighter days, unclouded by fear and despair. 

"...Yes," Thranduil said, letting go of him and stepping back. "You look like the king that you are and always have been." 

"I still hardly feel like a king," Bard said. "I wake up on soft furs and wonder where I am that I cannot hear the waves lapping against wood. Dale is warm and bright, and we shall rebuild it to surpass its former glory, but it is still wholly different from where I was born and raised." He gestured out the door of the tent to the blue waves licking the sandy beach beyond the grassy field where the tent had been pitched. "This feels more familiar." 

"It is in your nature to change," Thranduil said. "But great change comes not only to the race of Men, but also to Elvenkind. Once I lived in a forest, in a land so far away and so long ago destroyed that you will never have heard of it, and I was young, carefree and happy in the way that only youth can be. But the enemy came there with fire and fear, destroying all that I held dear."

Bard looked up at him, a question in his eyes that Thranduil could not answer. 

"From that destruction there was no rebuilding," Thranduil went on. "We escaped, we _fled_ , over mountains and rivers, and eventually made our way to this land. But ever the shadow of fear has lain on my heart. Never again will I allow an enemy to destroy all I hold dear." 

Bard took a sharp breath, and then nodded, slowly. "I feel just the same." Then he smiled, sudden, and though there was still an air of grimness to it, it was much lighter than Thranduil had ever seen him smile before. The very air seemed to dance around him, and Thranduil cocked his head, wondering just how Bard had managed to change the entire atmosphere with just a smile. "See, King of the Elves, you and I are not so very different after all!" 

Thranduil restrained the urge to laugh out loud from sheer pleasure at Bard's tone, and instead smiled back, cautiously. "We are both Kings," he said. "And we have both suffered and lost much." He spread out his hands, indicating everything around them. "We stand in the proof of your dedication and desire to build something that will last, in the wake of destruction." 

"Something that will last," Bard murmured, face going sober and serious again. "Can anything last, in this Middle-earth? Even you?"

"Not forever," Thranduil said. "One day I too will sail - or fade. But you will be long gone by then." 

Bard turned to face him more fully. "So I will," he said. "All we have is this moment. All we have is now, and as you said, we are Kings, and we feel the same about so much. Might we not feel the same about one other thing?"

"What thing?" Thranduil said, his hands almost unconsciously reaching out for Bard. 

"This," Bard said, and gently seized the Elvenking by his shoulders, dragging him down for a kiss. Thranduil made one surprised gasp and then gave himself up to Bard's lips, surprisingly soft through the coarse stubble of his beard. Bard's mouth on his was warm and sweet, and Thranduil's knees went weak at the tender passion in his embrace. 

When Bard pulled back, Thranduil could see his own reflection, disheveled, startled, shining in Bard's eyes, mouth agape, eyes wide with wonder. 

"We...we feel the same," he eventually stuttered out, his throat dry with anticipation and hope. 

Bard smiled again, and the world seemed to brighten so much that Thranduil could hardly see. "Then if all we have is now, Thranduil, will you lie down with me?" He gestured further into the tent, where a bed of furs awaited, and held out his hand. 

Thranduil took it.


End file.
